Obituary of Alice M. McGrath
Alice M. Perry McGrath, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, and mother-in-law, passed away on March 2, 2022, aged 94, leaving an ache in so many hearts.
She was born at Muhlenberg Hospital on February 3, 1928, to Mary Theresa Fitzgerald Perry and William Grant Perry and raised in North Plainfield, graduating from St. Joseph’s Grammar School and North Plainfield High School. She married Edward Thomas McGrath on September 8, 1951, at St. Joseph’s in North Plainfield. They were happily married for 57 years and separated only by his death in 2008. She retired as the Administrative Secretary of the Radiology Department of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center.
In 1938, she accompanied her mother back to her mother’s home in Bohocogram, Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland, and formed lifelong connections with her cousins there. She returned to visit Ireland several times, accompanied by friends and family, to visit her Aunt Elizabeth Hussey in Dublin and exchange visits with Liz’s children Maura Hussey, Alice Hussey Deegan and her husband Andy, and Laurie Hussey, who once took Alice and her husband Ed on a breakneck tour of Ireland that was never forgotten.
She and her husband raised their children in Plainfield, where Alice sang in the St. Bernard’s choir, and volunteered for the Woodlands Eldercare and the Center for Hope Hospice and Palliative Care as a eucharistic minister. She was an avid reader and cultivated the love of the written word in all her children. Her wry sense of humor will be particularly missed. Holidays and parties at Alice’s and Ed’s house were always joyful, and memories of them are cherished by all who were fortunate enough to attend.
In addition to her husband Ed, she was sadly predeceased by her son, Donald David McGrath, and her brothers William G. Perry, and Donald D. Perry.
Survivors include her children, Edward Thomas McGrath Jr., and his wife Julie Johnson-McGrath; Eileen Higgins and her husband Joseph Higgins; Patricia Branch and her husband Nicholas Branch; and her grandchildren, Patrick Joseph Higgins and Timothy Sean Higgins.
A visitation will be held on Monday, March 7, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Higgins Home for Funerals, Watchung, NJ. A Mass will be held on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Mary's Stony Hill Church, Watchung, NJ, followed by interment at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, NJ.
Donations in Alice's honor may be made to Doctors Without Borders.
